In my opinion you should go with Freedom Planet first, the game is completely solid and very polished. ^_^ I'm hoping that we'll see a GOG release for Mighty No. 9! ^_^
(Can't wait to try that one!) XD

I'm pretty sure they will but I can't confirm. I remember reading that Mighty Number 9 was getting a DRM free release. GOG does appear to be on a quest to have all the note worthy platformers on PC in one place, not that I'm complaining :P

Yes Freedom Planet is worth it, it's like Sonic 3 and Knuckles/Sonic and Knuckles with a dash of Gunstar Heroes and Rocket Knight adventures thrown in.

That sounds awesome. From what I've seen though it looks like Sonic meets Mario/Megaman.

Oh yeah, I can confirm it! I just read about "fake reviews" and thought, ok, it's probably a Sonic rip-off, but when I started playing, I could not stop! So much memories: It's like they released the game as an Sega CD32X game (instead of the FMV-bullshit from those times). It's really a mixture of Sonic & Knuckels, Sonic CD und Knuckles Chaotix.

The developers:

Isn't this just Sonic the Hedgehog with different graphics?
A: We were definitely inspired by Sonic when developing the characters and stages for Freedom Planet, but they are not exactly the same thing. [...] It should also be noted that Freedom Planet is not the first commercial game to be inspired by Sonic. During the 1990's, many other games tried to put their own spin on the concept, such as Bubsy, Aero the Acrobat, Socket: Time Dominator, Kid Chaos, Jazz Jackrabbit, and more.

Just grab the demo from the developers and look for yourself if the game is something for you.

As the author of one of the "fake" reviews (apparently having signed up years ago just waiting for my chance to strike), I can say I was actually shocked by how much I enjoy this game. I used to be a sonic fan when I was young, and given what has happened to that franchise, I wasn't really expecting much. I ended up loving it by the end of the second level.

I will agree with some of the other reviews that the dialogue and voice acting is, well, not great, but I still think it deserves a spot next to Shovel Knight and Volgar the Viking as great retro platformers.

Freedom Planet is actually closer to a run'n gun than a real Sonic platformer imo.

To me, it's closest to S3&K mixed with Megaman X4. The attacks in particular remind me a lot of Zero in X4-6. I had never even heard of it until I happened to check in here and see that it was available. Watched the video, then downloaded the demo and was hooked.

I was also able to get this running under Wine with no issues, so for those of use using Linux, it is playable. No noticeable slowdown, though I might be a tad too over-powered to tell.

It is absolutely fantastic and I would definately go with it. Just finished it myself and it's maybe my favourite platformer of all time. It's like a Sonic game if they would have improved and finetuned the classic sidescrolling formula over the years instead of shoehorning the other genres into the series. I bought it yesterday and couldn't lay it down until I finished the last boss - and that happens pretty rarely with any game these days. It's as if they made a platformer just for me! :)

The guy who wrote about the "fake reviews" was propably just a bit butthurt that his negative review on steam didn't get enough upvotes and/or he's a bit on the paranoid side of things. I was a bit distracted by that at first, but after playing it myself I dismissed that rapidly.